In the debate about perma death, the yeas seem to have won decisively. Nintendo's latest Fire Emblem game, Fire Emblem New Mystery of the Emblem, Hero of Light and Shadow topped the charts in its debut week, beating out such big names as Dragon Quest and Powerful Pro Baseball.

Enterbrain's data for July 12 through July 18, passed along today at Famitsu.com, put the Fire Emblem remake at the top of the charts. Debuting below it were Wii's Dragon Quest Monsters Battle Road Victory and PS3's Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2010, the latter the first HD outing for the top big headed baseball series.

New Mystery of the Emblem is a remake of the first Super Famicom Fire Emblem game. It can be considered a proper sequel to the first DS Fire Emblem game, which was localized in the English speaking world as Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon. The remake adds plenty of new features, including a custom character creation tool and various download and multiplayer options. Most notable among these is the ability to toggle on and off "perma death," the staple Fire Emblem gameplay feature that sees allies die off permanently when killed in battle.

In truth, the perma death change may not be the cause of the game's initial success. Famitsu states that the game had basically the same start as Shadow Dragon. This could be just Fire Emblem selling as well as it always does.

Other top 10 debuts this week include Last Ranker, the PSP version of Powerful Pro Baseball 2010, and Momotaro Dentetsu Tag Match. Here's the full list, with publisher, platform and release date in parentheses.